A PICTURE OF ANAEMIA
This classic before-and-after advertisement shows a woman suffering from anaemia - a condition of iron deficiency - and describes some symptoms ('though "a weak back" is not usually a symptom of iron deficiency!)
Did the pills really contain iron in a usable form?
We don't know what most patent medicines really contained, since, until the early 1900s, proprietors were allowed to guard the list of ingredients as a trade secret.
An advertisement mentioning specific ingredients therefore does not necessarily mean that the product contained what was claimed. Such advertisements are better read as evidence that the public had heard of the herbs and minerals mentioned and regarded them as potentially beneficial.
We do know what was in a few products, because in the early 1900s, journalists began to investigate the claims of patent medicines and published analyses of some products.
See another card advertising iron as an ingredient.
